All over the place? Maybe, maybe not.

I am fumbling toward learning what to and not to say on a public blog. I am, in the end, a highly private person. But I am also a person who realizes that continued existence requires use of interactive information technologies to promote the enhancement of social freedom. I am, in truth, not sure if I will ever be as true as I could be to the title of this blog--which, for any who do not know, refers to my position as a Writing Program Administrator in a university English department--because, frankly, it may weaken what I can do as an advocate for students and our program. If this makes me seem unethical to you, then that is what it makes me seem. What I assure you is that I am trying to promote the enhancement of social freedom, and I am aware that this is a complex, collective, time-consuming, perhaps unsustainable task, but an infinitely worthy one.

OK. That said, I have been thinking about NY state and SUNY as a system, given that the economic situation of both has been--needless to say--in a tough spot lately. A question I have kicked around for two years is this:

I realize that NY state has powerful corporate interests and a powerful bureaucracy. I do not expect the corporate interests to advocate on behalf of the poor. I do expect the bureaucracy to. How well, though, does the bureaucracy advocate on behalf of the poor in NY state? I ask this question self-identifying as a bureaucrat, as a state university faculty member.

I know that my university is on a mission to celebrate itself as advocating on behalf of the poor in its "The Power of SUNY" strategic planning campaign. One of the guiding assumptions of this campaign is that SUNY must accept and participate in what is to be the "entrepreneurial century." In theory, this refers to empowering local communities, businesses, people to use whatever resources they have in enterprising ways--to build knowledge, wealth, etc.

I also want to say that while we know the US, by pretty much all accepted indexes, has among developed nations a wide rich-poor gap (on this linked page on global income inequality, click on the image of the world at the top right hand corner of the page; note how the US's "peer" nations are doing a lot better than we are--and how, say, there is more equitable wealth distribution in petroleum-rich Russia and Nigeria than in the US), the same is true for NY state itself.

Most people know that these are not rosy times for US, or global, higher education in general--and US, or global, public higher education in particular. These are the times of the privatization of the public sphere. Now, if I may digress, I do not want to connect dots so much with this blog. I want to present related snippets of information. And I want to say I want to look into specifically how these are not rosy times for global public higher education--and what the trends are anticipated to be by experts on this subject. So, today, I did some looking around and found what I think is an interesting document presented by an ethical organization. It is, by name and identifying authors, as follows:

Trends in Global Higher Education: Tracking an Academic Revolution

A Report Prepared for the

UNESCO 2009 World Conference on Higher Education

Philip G. Altbach

Liz Reisberg

Laura E. Rumbley

What I am linking to my blog is the executive summary of this report, which I find fascinating.

OK. That's all for now.

Tom

Remixing on Family Guy

When composing is seen as a social, multimodal activity, we can and do call it remixing. While Family Guy, as a television show, does not satisfy the definition that some use for new media (which involves the use of linked "Web 2.0" technologies for distribution), it is a fun example of a multimodal remix. I often think about how the plotlines of the show are basically irrelevant, a thing noted in the South Park episode where the writing staff for FG is a bunch of manatees in a tank filled with "idea" balls. When I remember Family Guy, then, I do not remember entire episodes. I remember moments when I laugh or am embarrassed for being a part of the audience--like when Stewie and Peter drive Lois into the ocean (embarrassed), when Brian enters the family room with his girlfriend in sunglasses addicted to cocaine (both), whenever Stewie is in drag, etc. They are, most of them, moments and not episodes. Perhaps this is the case with many sitcoms; I guess they wouldn't be funny if we didn't recognize ourselves in them, so they are pretty much always ripped from other sources.

But, with FG and remix, we are forced to admit whether or not we find remixing a thing that requires talent, that is as creative as more "original" storytelling.

I guess I am interested in this because it is only recently that I have really been thinking about interactivity, that narrowing of the roles of producer and consumer, within popular texts. And with FG, it's completely in your face.

Do I like FG? Yes, I love FG. All writing is remixing, and the richest remixes are the best writing of all.

A tiny animation

OK, so I've been working on learning how to use Windows Movie Maker. Just a few minutes ago, I tried to save a little animation to this blog, and then I got antsy, pressing "publish" before the file had actually been uploaded. Sadly, it had some interesting material in it that I don't now have the energy to re-enter. So, I'm just going to post this animation. If anyone is interested at looking at a very basic, three second long animation of a jockey's whip in a re-touched lithograph, then this is for you.

(But this is mostly for me, an experiment in seeing whether or not I could do this.)

The image and sound are both free and legal to use for personal reasons, which is certainly what this is. The image's license can be found here. The sound's publisher requests that no one link to the site. So, I include a citation at the end of this post.

I've been thinking about NY state, and I've been thinking about Saratoga. These two thoughts led me to be thinking jockeys. I did a search for a lithographs, thinking these could be re-touched nicely with the use of GIMP, an open-source photoshopping program. So, with that, I end this entry here.

Tom

A 1 Free Sound Effects. Horses Running. A 1 Free Sound Effects, 2009. MP3.

Never before

OK, so I am working on becoming a more regular blogger. That is not an easy thing for me. I think it may be because I value my privacy a great deal. It may be my hoarding sensibility, too. It may be that I'm old. It may be a lot of things.

But in teaching a class on new media, which I would identify as the use of immersive, interactive, computer-based, communicative tools, I am becoming more and more interested in this thing. This blog that is. And, also, how technology is less likely to be used to manipulate me or anyone else against our own best interests if I actively engage with it.

Some technologies--like mechanical pencils, for instance--I have an undeniable attraction to, one I can't remember not having. Others I am more skeptical of. And blogs are one technology that I am skeptical of, given that it's not always been clear to me whether I can use it to enhance popular freedom or if, in using it, I will be undermining those efforts more than promoting them.

Anyway, I realize these reflections are quickly becoming boring.

[There was some other stuff here. I realized that a post I thought hadn't gone up actually had, leaving me with essentially duplicate content.]

A long time...a year, I guess...

Well, I'm back. If anyone's ever had interest in my blog, that interest has to be at an all time low because this has been dormant for a year now. As far as I'm concerned, it's exactly a year: Surprisingly, it was on the first day of class last fall that I last posted--and today is that day for 2010.

I'm honored to have been entrusted with another two classes--and I'm excited to be a shaping influence within them. I have come to think more and more of teaching writing as having and modeling good judgment, thanks to having read Quintilian last year. When I think of judgment, I am thinking of selective response designed to help a writer become a growing member of a discourse community. What the word, "judgment," communicates to me is how the practice of giving response is an ethical endeavor. And I love that. And I sincerely hope that my judgment may be as good as it can be this year.

I find myself thinking of other things to say right now, but it is a moment where I would be saying to be saying something--not the kind of reaction to objects and/or others that I would like to have inspire me. So I'm going to can it.

Today I break my blogging silence. It's been a year, mostly, since I last wrote on this site, and the reason is simple: so far, my work as a WPA has been something I've worked out locally--in this place (this as in where I am sitting now, not where you are reading this). My suspicion is that it will remain this way. At the same time, with time, I also acquire a language for doing this work, so it may be that I will voice my perspectives on my administrative work more here.

What is causing me to write today is that it is the first day of the 2009-2010 academic school year at SUNY Plattsburgh. It is a musty, late summer day in New York's North Country, and once again, Plattsburgh crawls with life at every turn. It's very exciting.

I am not sure, but I think much of my direction with my blog this year may be to write less as an administrator as more as a teacher. This seems like a good direction, particularly because I am asking my students to write blogs in my class. Following advice from Beach et al's Teaching Writing Using Blogs, etc. (Christopher Gordon, 2009), I am having my students write response blogs this semester, so they will not only write in response to prompts from me but also respond to their blog partners' entries once a week. This will be an amount of work equivalent to what I asked students in my ENG100 sections last year to do, but, given the response blog design, each student will know s/he has an invested audience member other than me looking at her/his work, commenting on that work, and more. It's exciting.

Well, that is it for now. In the first meetings of my ENG100 classes this term, I am having my students add their blog partners and me as readers of their blogs.

One thing I noted today during class: in having my students use for word processing this term Google Documents, when they turn in their work, they will click on "share." Sharing assignments with a teacher--it may suggest a degree of freedom of choice that in this case is not present, but at the same time, when it comes to writing, the work is always personal on some level. We turn in ourselves, to some extent, and that being the case, assuming each is her or his own, even turning work into a teacher is sharing it.

Sharing work. It's a good thing.

Tom

Composition Reading Group: Selecting Readings

What would you like to read in the spring? During December and January, I hope to be able to settle upon a book to purchase for our group, and I am turning to you for your input.

As you know, this brown bag group will meet monthly to discuss a pre-selected chapter from one of our texts. This group may also occasionally host guest speakers/facilitators, such as representatives of the Learning Center and Feinberg Library.

We should be able to get copies of the St. Martin's Guide to Teaching Writing (6th Ed.) for free; so, if people are interested in this volume, that would involve little more than contacting our Bedford/St. Martin's representative, Lori Butcher.

I would, however, also like to order for each of you a copy of one of two books that have been mentioned as possible texts for our group:
(1) John Bean's Engaging Ideas
(2) Donald Murray's The Craft of Revision (5th Ed.) (Thanks for the recommendation, Greg!)

In posting this blog entry, I am initiating a specific conversation on which of these three books you would like to have our group read. As your "vote," I would like those of you who can during late December and early January to provide a brief, written position on which of these books you'd like to have our group read. In formulating your position, I would like you to consider how these books and their tables of address our proposed meetings' themes.

Our proposed meetings' themes include the following:
(1) students’ acculturation to college,
(2) using computers to teach writing,
(3) how to teach analysis and support critical thinking in ENG 100 and 101,
(4) how to teach students not to plagiarize,
(5) how to teach students argumentation,
(6) how to work with the Learning Center and Feinberg Library in teaching writing at Plattsburgh,
(7) how to teach revision
(8) how to differentiate instruction to accommodate diverse learners

The tables of contents for these texts are located at the following sites:

Bean (when you get to this page, click on the "look inside" feature)
Murray
St. Martin's Guide

I have for your perusal a copy of each of these books in my office on the bookshelf immediately to the right of the front door.

I am really excited about this group, and I thank you in advance for any thoughts you have on these proposed readings. Again, if you could share your thoughts by early to mid January, this will enable us to get started perhaps in the second week of spring.

In the meantime, thanks again for all of your hard work, and please have a great, much-deserved break.

Tom